Reshaping childhood obesity at school and home

LSI researchers Joseph Donnelly and Ric Steele, Jr., are exploring two different environments to address the same public health crisis: childhood obesity. Donnelly focuses on school and Steele, the family.

Donnelly recently published the results of a large-scale research project that tested the viability of children exercising during academic lessons. Kansas school children answered math questions with jumping jacks. They also played at being floating molecules and leap-frogged syllable breaks for about 75 minutes a week. The project, Physical Activity Across the Life Span, resulted in significantly less increase in body mass index (BMI) in those schools that more closely adhered to the recommended intervention. Children also shifted down from higher to lower, healthier BMIs. Another intriguing finding was increased academic achievement - a secondary but significant outcome that will be the focus of a new study called A+PAAC that Donnelly hopes will be funded to begin this year. Donnelly's approach could convince schools to bring back physical activity since it may help them meet federal academic performance standards at the same time.

Steele tested an obesity treatment called Positively Fit aimed at changing the diet and physical activity behavior of obese children ages 7 to 17 and their families. What makes this different, according to Steele, is that the intervention was tested in a real-world setting: two outpatient family and child psychological clinics. The children were typical of those a clinical psychologist like Steele would see in his practice -- children who might also have depression or anxiety. The children were counseled separately from their families in group sessions. Families learned how to create healthier environments for their children that often benefited the families as a whole.

Another first for Steele's treatment is a one-year follow-up assessment of the participants. If Positively Fit proves to be effective, the intervention could impact how counselors and therapists deal with obesity and other chronic medical conditions requiring significant lifestyle changes.